School Committee Approves High School Attendance Policy

June 17, 2025
• After delaying their vote on the matter for further consideration, members passed the NHS handbook for next school year.

Weeks of discussion regarding the future of Needham High School’s attendance policy resulted in its successful passage at the School Committee’s Tuesday meeting.

Debate mainly centered around equity and non-excused absences for sick days and mental health days, which some committee members have argued causes students to attend school while sick so as to not lose credits. Member Matt Spengler, who has been critical of the policy since last spring, has suggested that parents should be able to excuse absences to disincentivize those behaviors.

At the committee’s June 3 meeting, member Alisa Skatrud also pointed to “a culture… of high-performing kids coming to school despite physical illness.” NHS nurse Lisa Austin said students sometimes don’t adhere to illness guidelines for several factors, including the rigor of their coursework.

Under a pilot attendance policy this past year, students with six or more absences — authorized or unauthorized by a parent — will lose one credit per class. Those students can, however, earn back their credit in the following term. Of the 34 students who lost credits this year, 11 of them earned them back, according to data shared at the meeting.

Amendments to the pilot policy include new language around striking a balance between consistent attendance and staying home for “genuine illness.” The handbook also specifies the need for a doctor’s note to excuse sick days.

Up to 20 absences are allowed per year.

For students with three or more non-excused absences by the middle of the term, nursing staff contact families and teachers to determine possible supports, according to Austin and the policy as written. Superintendent Dan Gutekanst also proposed that the School Wellness Advisory Committee work to analyze attendance patterns and students’ access to health care.

“We want healthy students to participate in school. We want them to take responsibility for their learning. We want to use data to approve and inform our practices,” Gutekanst said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We also want equitable practices and policies in place, not just around attendance, but around our programs so that we can meet the needs of all of our students and families.”

Gutekanst reported a 5.6% rate of chronic absence this school year. The district defines chronic absence as missing 10% or more of the school year. Gutekanst said overall attendance is higher than the two previous years, but outlined a goal for next year to “decrease chronic absenteeism to improve student outcomes and learning, especially for subgroups,” such as low-income students, English language learners and special education students, who are more often chronically absent.

Students are, however, earning back credits, which Gutekanst deems as a success of the pilot program.

“From our perspective, although imperfect, the policy is making inroads in trying to address the needs of low-income students,” he said.

The School Committee approved both the elementary and middle school handbooks at its May 20 meeting. Spengler motioned to amend the NHS absence policy to count parent notes as excused absences for sick and mental health days, but it failed in a 3-3-1 vote.

Spengler, who abstained from the vote on the policy because of his opposition, said the district should look to other communities to understand the differences in absence policies and how best to approach students who are chronically absent. Gutekanst advised that the School Committee’s policy subcommittee examine laws and state policies to develop an attendance policy.

The underlying factors causing absences, however, may not be something the schools are able to solve, member Liz Lee said. There are “natural inequities” that could be playing a role, she said.

“We also need to make sure that we’re not losing track of the big picture, because we are just one piece of a much larger system that is contributing to all of the challenges that we’re seeing,” Lee said.